High-pressure fluid chromatography system using interior-to-exterior column pressure equalization

Abstract

Provided is a chiller and system that may be utilized in a supercritical fluid chromatography method, wherein a non-polar solvent may replace a portion or all of a polar solvent for the purpose of separating or extracting desired sample molecules from a combined sample/solvent stream. The system may reduce the amount of polar solvent necessary for chromatographic separation and/or extraction of desired samples. The system may incorporate a supercritical fluid chiller, a supercritical fluid pressure-equalizing vessel and a supercritical fluid cyclonic separator. The supercritical fluid chiller allows for efficient and consistent pumping of liquid-phase gases employing off-the-shelf HPLC pumps. The pressure equalizing vessel allows the use of off-the-shelf HPLC column cartridges. The system may further incorporate the use of one or more disposable cartridges containing silica gel or other suitable medium. The system may also utilize an open loop cooling circuit using fluids with a positive Joule-Thomson coefficient.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An open-loop cooling system compromising:
 a pressured source for introducing a high-pressure fluid for circulation within a loop of the open-loop cooling system, the pressurized source located upstream of an entry region of the loop;   an expansion device for receiving the fluid circulating within the loop of the system, the expansion device located downstream of the entry region of the loop and downstream of an exit region of the loop, the expansion device comprising one or more channels of increasing diameter in the downstream directly, the one or more channels of increasing diameter allowing the circulating fluid to expand and cool as the fluid passes through and cools the expansion device, wherein the expansion device is proximate to one or more objects to be cooled;   a heat exchanger located at a point of overlap in loop where the entry region of the loop is proximate to the exit region of the loop, wherein heat from the fluid circulating through the entry region of the loop is transferred to the fluid circulating through the exit region of the loop;   an exhaust region located at the downstream end of the cooling loop, configured to allow the circulating fluid to exit the loop and vent onto one or more objects to be cooled.